Pathways

This weeks theme is pathways. This first picture was taken in an airport, but there is no way for the viewer to know this. It really is an ambiguous picture. No art work on the walls, a blank ceiling, and the paneling that covers the construction on the other side, all create a sense of vagueness. The light that runs along the top of the wall is great. It gives the picture a surreal feeling. Without the people at the very end, this would be a blank, bleak, pale hallway leading no where. Straight out of the movies. Everything is symmetrical as well, which adds to this affect. The stones on the left form lines and grooves, the panels create their own lines and grooves and the ceiling makes a third pattern. The light running along the side of the picture attracts the eye and drags it down the hallway. The reflection of the light on the floor makes for an interesting contrast between the lightness on the left half of the picture and the darkness along the right half.
All in all, save the people at the end, this is THE random hallway. I've been looking for this hallway all my life.

This picture is great with the symmetry as well. It actually is kind of mind-numbing. Endless library stacks and plain fluorescent lighting, caffeine's worst enemy. The two parallel, vertical, wooden planks in the middle of the picture create a gate-like feeling; and for some reason, the shelves seem to bend in towards the isle, as if they are caving in. It is almost as if you can replace the books and shelves with black stone and pillars of fire and create a hellish entryway to knowledge. Ignorance might really be bliss. The opening at the very end adds to the gate-like feeling. What is it? A door? Where does it go? Who goes there? Do these books help us figure this out? Which one? Do I have to read all of them to get the answer? Is there some sort of index, maybe an anthology? Something? A librarian? Jesus. Anyone have any coffee?
The contrast between the lights above, which are almost blurred with brightness, and the dark carpet, which lacks some light due to the shelving is interesting. The bottom shelves and foreground carpet are dark. It almost looks artificial because the light doesn't decrease slowly. The last two shelves just lose the light.


This is THE road from the movies. Y'know the one where they play that introspective music. The guy is driving in his car, and the shadows of the trees bounce off his car and over his passive face. Whatever, it was a good movie, you should see it. What's his name was in it.
The colors here are unbelievable. The blue, green and even gray is so complete and rich. I actually biked down this road (which can be found in Southern Wisconsin, about two hours north of Milwaukee) and it was one of the most serene experiences possible. Just me, the empty road, beautiful scenery and the constant Ch-chunk of my broken rented bicycle gears.
The endless road is great as well. Lack of street signs forbid a prior knowledge of direction until already there. It just goes and goes. Comparing it with the first two pictures, the eye is moved here as well. Like the previous ones, this path first drags the eye through the picture and then once at the end creates the question of "where's it going". It's like a good story that makes the reader think about what the characters are going to do after the last page.
I love this picture because save for the pavement, which feels like it fits in anyway, nothing is tainted with human touch. The sky is a perfect sea of blue, with white islands of clouds. Surrounding trees and foliage are an ocean of green with a stream of gray road running through the middle in waves. The shadows dance timidly on the gray river of road and lick the grass on the other side like flames of a fire that can't burn.